Officials: Gunman takes hostages at Calif. VA home

YOUNTVILLE, Calif. — A gunman took at least three people hostage at the largest veterans home in the United States on Friday, leading to a lockdown of the sprawling grounds in northern California, authorities said.

A man tells the Associated Press a gunman quietly came into a going-away party and staff meeting at the campus in Yountville and let some leave, while keeping others hostage.

Larry Kamer says his wife, Devereaux Smith, is a fundraiser for the nonprofit Pathway Home, a privately run program on the grounds of the Veterans Home of California. She was at the party Friday morning of 10 to 15 people at the Pathway Home, which treats veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kamer says his wife is now inside the home’s dining hall and is not allowed to leave. He spoke to her by phone.

He does not know if the suspect was a veteran receiving treatment from the home.

Napa County Fire captain Chase Beckman said earlier that the gunman took at least three people hostage. Kamer said he does not know why the suspect let his wife and some colleagues leave.

June Iljana, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Veterans Affairs, confirmed to CBS News that shots had been fired at the complex, where 850 veterans live. Veteran residents and staff are sheltering in place, Iljana said.

Beckman says no injured people have been treated.

CBS SF

The California Highway Patrol said via Twitter its officers are on the scene working with Napa County Sheriff’s deputies “to bring the situation to a safe conclusion.”

CHP aerial resources were on the scene and a SWAT team was on the way. Agents from ATF are responding to assist, a law enforcement source told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton.

The Napa County Sheriff’s Department issued an alert to residents at 10:30 a.m. Friday warning them to avoid the area because of “activity” at the veterans home.

The Napa Valley Register reported that a man wearing body armor and armed with an automatic weapon entered the home.

The Register reported the call came in at 10:20 a.m., and several dozen officers from multiple agencies were setting up a perimeter.

A witness told CBS San Francisco dozens of emergency vehicles were racing along Highway 29 toward the veterans home, including at least four ambulances.

CBS San Francisco

The sheriff’s department did not immediately respond to a telephone call from The Associated Press.

The state Veterans Affairs department says the home that opened in 1984 is the largest veterans’ home in the United States and houses elderly and disabled residents. Its website says it offers residential accommodations with recreational, social, and therapeutic activities for independent living.

Veterans of World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom now live at the home, according to the website.

Jan Thornton tells the Associated Press her 96-year-old father – a WWII fighter pilot – is inside a hospital wing at the home. Thornton says she’s still shaking and that she hasn’t been able to talk to her father. But, she says she was able to talk to one of his friends, who is also locked down, and that he told her that her father is safe.

She says her “heart just bleeds for the people that are being held hostage.”

Though she thinks her dad is safe, she is still worried about the stress of the situation, considering his age and that he has post-traumatic stress disorder and some dementia.

The grounds are also home to a 1,200-seat theater, a 9-hole golf course, a baseball stadium, bowling lanes, a swimming pool, and a military Base Exchange branch store.

Yountville is in Napa Valley, the heart of Northern California’s wine country.

Events manager Elizabeth Naylor, who was working about 10 miles north of the veterans’ home, said she heard waves of emergency sirens. She said she’s lived in Yountville since 1995 and is rattled about a shooting so close to home.

“I don’t know the world we live in today, I really don’t,” she said. “This is a little community and we all know each other. Napa Valley is a wonderful, beautiful place and to know this is in your background, it’s unsettling.”